A Safe Haven is something that you take for granted as a child. Home for a child is a place of safety, comfort, family and tradition. However there are places in the world with this accepted given in life is not a fact of life. For over a million Zimbabwean Children, home is a memory of happy times. A memory of a place filled with familiar people where you’d find love, support and acceptance. Now for these children, life is a daily struggle to survive as they are left to fend for themselves by parents dying from an AIDS crisis.
Statistics claim that over 70 children a day are orphaned in Zimbabwe with the count reaching an estimated 1.2 million at the end of 2008. These children are isolated, very often traumatised by the loss of their parents, stigmatised by a society that looks down on HIV patients, and exposed and very vulnerable to mental and physical abuse. Frequently their inheritance or the little they have is claimed by neighbours or unscrupulous predators who prey on these vulnerable kids. It was frequent to find that many harbour an affirmation that they wish they were dead. Stigmatisation and a total lack of family structure means that very often children are lost and left with a feeling of abandonment, and worthlessness. Many have taken to hiding through an exacerbated feeling of shame that starts through the social isolation their parents suffer when exposed as AIDS patients and then the fact that they have to face society as the children who have been abandoned and left to fend for themselves.
These children are not loved. They are not wanted. The government is ill equipped and lacking the funds to support the children. Society in Zimbabwe struggles daily to survive themselves. Few find shelter with extended family or friends of their family. Some are lucky enough to make it to an orphanage, but the majority of these children are living in desperate circumstances. It is for this reason that our organisation chose to work on behalf of these victims of a dyer circumstance. It is our vision that every child should feel that they are among friends even though they might be away from home. We desire that every orphaned child should feel safe and cared for, no matter where their circumstances are.
Safe Haven Trust works with three approaches to achieve its goal.
Fundamentally Safe Haven is a charitable organisation registered and based in the United Kingdom. We work by partnering with Orphanages and other Organisations that provide education and health services to the Orphanages we chose to support. We do not put people on the ground in Zimbabwe, as we are of the opinion that in assisting Organisations in Zimbabwe we impact two fold. Not only do we provide for the children but we promote employment for Zimbabwean people.
Primarily we are an international voice for our Partner Organisations and campaign on their behalf to actively raise the funding that they so desperately rely on to survive. In this way we also take the worry of sourcing funding from the hands of the project leaders allowing them to focus their time on the children in their care, while we work on their behalf.
Secondly The Safe Haven Trust works on a consultative basis. We are an organisation of professionals from many walks of life that challenge the consciousness and practices around donor strategies in Zimbabwe. We aim to engage with donor agencies to build sustainable programs that provide real change to the lives of Zimbabwean Orphans. Our ultimate goal is to shift perceptions and practices away from aid reliance and encourage long term investment in projects that seek to provide opportunities for Zimbabweans to work together with the International Agencies worldwide, and mould and develop its own unique solution to its problems. As Zimbabweans ourselves, our organisation is in a fantastic position to facilitate this engagement between parties and brings Zimbabwe and all its possibilities to the table.
Finally the Safe Have Trust works actively within the Zimbabwean Community as an advocate of the Rights of the Child. We engage Politicians, Human Rights Organisations and Community Leaders to stand up for the Orphans of the AIDS crisis in Zimbabwe. We put pressure on the media to give light to the situation of these children and seek to engage Zimbabwean people to accept their role and responsibility in providing for these kids.
